Pardon me, but no one told me that Thursday was Pardoning Day. Turns out that President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin do have at least one thing in common (besides all those nuclear warheads, I mean): They both have something of a soft spot for (some) folks in jail. Obama on Thursday took a small step, commuting the sentences of eight people stuck in prison because of harsh mandatory sentencing guidelines for drug offenses. YEAR IN REVIEW: Politicians' lamest apologies in 2013 But his Russian counterpart had bigger fish to unfry.

This Thanksgiving, the White House wants to know: Do you like Popcorn or Caramel? But don't expect either on your dinner plate. As part of the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon, the White House is once again asking people to vote on which of the two pardoned turkeys gets the title of National Thanksgiving Turkey. It's the second year the White House has asked the public to decide on the chosen bird. Last year, voters were asked to choose between Cobbler and Gobbler ; Cobbler ultimately won the title . Each turkey has a profile on the White House website . Both are male and were born on July 8, 2013, so you'll have to base your decision on other characteristics, such as: Walk (Caramel is “steady and deliberate” while Popcorn has a “proud strut”)

The Alabama parole board on Thursday granted posthumous pardons in the "Scottsboro Boys" rape case, seeking to correct one of the more infamous racist cases that scarred the Deep South in the 1930s and that has reverberated through the nation's consciousness ever since. The board unanimously approved a petition granting a posthumous pardon to three of the group who still had convictions on their records. The pardons had been expected since the Alabama Legislature passed a law in the spring to allow the board to grant pardons for crimes older than 75 years - a move specifically directed at closing the last part of the case.

FAIRHOPE, Ala. - The state of Alabama can't rewrite a history shot through with hate and violence, but with the help of one determined woman it has added a postscript. On Thursday, Alabama's parole board pardoned the last of the long-dead Scottsboro Boys, nine black teenagers falsely accused of rape in 1931. Their case was monumental. It divided some residents here and united others, led to two landmark Supreme Court decisions, and precipitated the civil rights movement in the decades that followed.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican President Enrique Pe ñ a Nieto announced Wednesday that he would pardon an indigenous teacher who has spent 13 years in prison after being convicted of participating in the murder of seven police officers. The case of Alberto Patishtan has been a cause celebre for many human rights activists who maintained that he did not receive a fair hearing in the courts and was denied due process. He was serving a 60-year sentence. Pe ñ a Nieto's order is made possible by a law taking effect Thursday that expands presidential pardon powers.

WASHINGTON - Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, sentenced to 35 years in custody for giving a trove of top secret U.S. material to WikiLeaks, is asking the White House for a presidential pardon and release from prison because, as she said in her application, “The decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of a concern for my country and the world we live in.” In the pardon request, filed Tuesday and made public Wednesday, Manning, formerly known as...

A Norwegian interior designer who said she was raped by a Sudanese colleague during a business trip to the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai earlier this year has been “pardoned” from her conviction and 16-month sentence for extramarital sex, drinking alcohol and providing false information to authorities. The decision Monday in the name of the Emirati ruler in Dubai cleared the way for 24-year-old Marte Deborah Dalelv to return to her Nordic homeland. But it in no way reflected a change in the Islamic federation's laws or practices that typically treat women against whom sexual violence is committed as criminals rather than victims.

LIMA, Peru -- Peruvian President Ollanta Humala on Friday said he had turned down the plea for a pardon by former leader Alberto Fujimori, who is serving a 25-year prison term for corruption and crimes against humanity. In an midday announcement at the presidential palace in Lima, Humala said he was acting on the recommendation of the justice minister not to exercise his power of granting pardon to Fujimori, who was elected president three times. Fujimori's family appealed to Humala to grant a pardon on humanitarian grounds because the former president suffers from cancer of the tongue for which he has received five surgeries.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday continued a pattern of pardons tied to Christian religious days, granting clemency to 65 convicted criminals, including a Los Angeles man who spent 15 years in prison for a 1977 murder conviction. Brown's pardon of Robert Phillip Brown provided no details of the ex-convict's crime, nor his case for clemency, other than to say the man had obtained a Superior Court order last year testifying that since release from prison, "he has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character and conducted himself as a law-abiding citizen.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday continued a pattern of pardons tied to Christian religious days, granting clemency to 65 convicted criminals, including a Los Angeles man who spent 15 years in prison for a 1977 murder conviction. Brown's pardon of Robert Phillip Brown provided no details of the convict's crime, nor his case for clemency, other than to say the man had obtained a Superior Court order last year testifying that since release from prison, "he has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character, and conducted himself as a law-abiding citizen.